A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
